When the PC's took on Thistletop they navigated around Gogmurt and the ten Birdcruncher goblins outside. they completely cleared out the top two layers leaving only Lyire and Nualia. due to the pace they went through the dungeon they were about out of resources like spells and such when they reached Nualia and had to run. they made it back to town barely due to some quick thinking with the rope bridge.

my question is given that only Gogmurt and the Birdcruncher goblins are left and the political structure between him and Nualia is very bad how would you guys reset up Thistletop for when the players inevitably go back to finish the job. I hate to leave only Lyire, Nualia, and a Yeth hound to guard that whole complex when Nualia is busy unlocking secrets. however I have a hard time seeing Gogmurt being willing to work with Nualia. Im looking for some good ideas to make this another epic story rather than just a return to clean up what they couldn't do before

Credit where credit is due: My wife came up with this one. I originally planned to have her GM Carrion Crown for me. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't...

The Diabolical Wife's Plan:

Have Nualia kidnap Tangletooth. This isn't too far beyond the realm of reason because Tangletooth and Gogmurt sleep in separate rooms, and the Yeth hound can fly over there silently at night.

Then Nualia blackmails Gogmurt: "If you want to see your precious kitty again, you'll help me repel these adventurers!"

All kinds of fun ensues: If the PCs find and free Tangletooth first, Gogmurt turns on Nualia. Otherwise, they can try to exploit the rift between them in some way.

Honestly, with the people you have left, even adding Gogmurt and the ten birdcrunchers isn't going to help much. Maybe she can get a winch and lift Yippy, er, the bunyip into a room? Lure the tentamort to a more tactical location?

Or you can just say she frees Malfeshnekor while they're gone. Now THAT would make for an unpleasant fight for the PCs...

NobodysHome, watch out for that wife of yours. she has a mad evil genius mind! I love the idea of the captured Tangletooth and a coerced Gogmurt. maybe he will send a Birdcruncher goblin for more goblin tribes to help.

I forgot to mention I have another fun/interesting dynamic brewing in the form of Orik and Lyri. the PCs originally payed Orik to leave but instead he went and found Lyri and tried to get her to leave with him. That not working he joined up with her. When the PCs arrived and discovered the betrayal they tossed grenades in the room but in the process let slip that Tsuto was dead. Lyri, distraught escaped through the secret door but left Orik to be blown up by the grenade. the betrayal of Lyri did not sit well and the PCs convinced Orik to join them to exact revenge on Lyri.

all of this is now shaping up to be another good adventure not just a mop up of what they missed the first time. thanks for the good ideas and keep' em coming if you got more :D

After the first several attempts at taking on Thistletop resulted in the posse returning to Sandpoint for recuperation (free healing and restorations by the priests), Nualia became more and more frustrated trying to figure out the solution to the secret door.

Our Burnt Offerings Ending:

As the PCs probed the deepest rooms of the ancient Thassilonian relic, Nualia finally figured out where the slots were and what to do with them. She found Malfeshnekor's room, but the door was locked. There were engraved footprint markings on the floor in front of those doors. Plaques to the top and to either side had Thassilonian words written on them; written in bold and attention-grabbing letters -- as if in warning.

Excitedly she searched the other two rooms and found the Sihedron Rune key. Returning to the double doors, she stood on the footprints and joined the star to the door and pulled it open. Delighted to see the end of her search, she called to the empty room, "Come, demon, let us destroy together. Let us bring such ruin upon the world that Lamashtu can't help but hold us in her favor!"

After a moment's pause, during which time Malfeshnekor's non-existent heart rose into his horrible throat, the invisible Barghest spoke in a deep and sonorous voice, "Of course, lady. Free me from this room and I will join you in slaughter."

Nualia paused momentarily, "What do you mean? The door is open. You are free. What else is needed? Come."

Furious that the aasimar didn't know what she was about, it took all of the barghest's control to reply with a measured voice, "It is not wall or door that keeps me here. I am snared within a hedged prison. The trigger for releasing it is unknown to me."

Nualia looked at the footprints on the floor and the plaques on the wall. "Fiend, do you know what these plaques say? They look as if to warn me of something."

"Yes, lady, they each say the same thing, 'To Release The Prisoner, Say His Name'."

Contemplative, Nualia spent the remainder of the day trying to solve the mystery of the prison's trigger. In the meantime, she directed the last remaining residents of Thistletop to stage a last-ditch stand in the statue hall just at the foot of the stairs. At this point, she still had Chief Ripnugget (and his lovely lizard), several goblins and commandos, one warchanter, two Yeth hounds, Lyrie, and Erylium to face the implacable power of the 5 heros of Sandpoint. Should have been enough.

But when the Sandpoint marauders arrived, they basically slaughtered everyone. It didn't help that Erylium had stolen Lyrie's wand but wouldn't use it (she didn't want Lyrie to know she had it--Erylium deserved it anyway). It also didn't help that every spell she cast at the group had no effect (was that a magic sword she tried to Shatter!?!?). As Lyrie was the last to fall, Erylium fled to find Nualia.

Nualia, for her part, ran to the column room from her study the moment the PCs were heard on the stairs. Towards the end of the battle, the PCs heard a grinding noise coming from down the corridor but had no idea what it was or what it meant. They took a few moments to disable the hall trap and to approach cautiously. By this time, Nualia had disappeared into the secret area (the gold coins roll out of slots on the other side of the wall in which they're inserted and their retrieval raises the column - works the same way in reverse).

Once there, Nualia began to panic. It's only her and the psychotic little quasit and the imprisoned fiend. If the adventurers found her, she planned to jump inside the demon's room and with the quasit, the three of them could hopefully lure the PCs into the cell and dispose of them. The barghest at the door was breathing its fetid breath upon her shoulders as she waited.

And as she waited she heard the PCs enter the room on the other side of the gold coins column and proceed down to the double doors. Hope rekindled: maybe the shadows would suck them dry. A few moments later, the adventurers were in full retreat, the double doors slammed closed, and she could hear them pounding pell-mell out of the room. Finally, after what must have been hours she rolled the coins through the slots and lowered the column. The way seemed clear. She ventured out and with Erylium they left Thistletop.

Out in the Nettlewood, where she felt safe for a time, she stopped to think. No allies remained here but one and that one was locked away in a prison with a frustrating and impossible lock. She had not the magical strength to destroy the prison, Lamashtu didn't seem willing to do it for her, and she couldn't figure out the trigger word or words to shut the prison magic down. Those DAMNED THASSILONIAN RUNELORDS! And those damned Sandpoint Nuisances that wouldn't stop coming. Of course they were still coming -- her useless crew hadn't killed even one of them!

That was it, then, she decided. Nothing for it now. Back to Magnimar and back to Justice Ironbriar - a new plan had to be hatched.

She was long gone by the time the PCs arrived back at Thistletop. The heroes cleared out the Shadows; they were prepared this time. They solved the puzzles to open the door to the sunken treasury. And finally returned to the gold coins column. Figuring that out relatively quickly, they searched the north and east rooms before turning their attention to the closed double doors to the south. The room with the plaques apparently warning them away and the engraved footprint markings on the floor and the seven-pointed star "key" leaning against the wall.

The witch cast See Invisibility, looking for Erylium (knowing the little b%!++ could disappear). Moving in combat time, they opened the door and found the room empty. They stepped inside just as the witch caught sight of the invisible barghest in the corner and screamed a warning. He moved from one side of the room to the other, engaging his Rage power and thundering out, "If you want to live, you will free me!"

They decided, since Mal didn't attack, maybe he could be negotiated with. That was a mistake as the barghest hit the ranger with the full might of all three raging, bull-strength attacks and nearly laid him low. That was when the ranger saw the demonic appearance through a haze of his own red blood. He stumbled back out the door, as did his companions and they slammed it shut.

Malfeshnekor pounded on the door from inside the room and issued a hollow, anguished cry carrying with it all the rage and horror of ten thousand years of solitude and imprisonment and hunger. Everyone made to leave. Everyone except the alchemist.

He stopped.

He turned.

He spoke through the door, "If we let you go, how can we know you won't attack the people of Sandpoint."

The demon paused...

and began the process of convincing a group of people he had the power and motivation to do what they needed done. He would smell out and kill that b#~#$ Nualia who abandoned him.

"Will you swear to not intentionally or willingly kill innocents (or, as one person added, "through inaction allow an innocent come to harm")?"

A pause as if in deliberation, the sonorous voice spoke, "I swear."

He promised he would be good. He promised he would be loyal. Would he, if Nualia returned, be loyal to her? Yes, he was sad to have to tell them. After 10,000 years, he would be loyal to anyone who freed him. But if they freed him first, well, he would kill her and be loyal to them. He would bring her head as proof of her death to the eastern Thistletop tower as they requested. He. Would. Do. Whatever they wanted him to do.

Finally, they made a decision, they would free this demon who promised to "smell out" Nualia and kill her before turning his attention on some race of beings of known evil called "Aboleths", whatever they were.

So they set about trying to unravel the puzzle of the prison.

They figured it out.

They released the barghest.

Ignoring them, he pushed his way out into the hall, squeezing them up against the walls. Then he squeezed out of the gold column "door". Tasting freedom for the first time in 10,000 years was overpowering even his 10,000 year old hunger. But then the ranger called out, "Do you want me to show you where to bring Nualia's head?"

He turned and with a malevolent gaze said, "I will not be bringing you Nualia's head. I will kill her to be sure, because she abandoned me, not because of any promises I made to you. Be glad that you yet live."

He turned and left. The group stood there in disbelief. They thought they had made some sort of infernal contract that the barghast would be bound to follow.

Two weeks later, news came in from Magnimar of a slaughter that had occurred there. The dead were rumored to be members of some secret society known as The Brothers of the Seven. At the scene, they found one demonic arm. Clearly, the murderous demon lost an arm to these Brothers before it finishing them. The demon hadn't been found, but Magnimar was on high alert.

This is great, of course, because I have long term plans now for this NPC to return. Should allow for some cool RP potential.

Thanks. Burnt Offerings was the first AP I had run, so I really dug the whole thing (Sandpoint characters, villains, and arc). This was my third attempt to finish it. The first failed because I moved. The second failed because the players really just didn't dig the whole world and game system. This third attempt was just right.

I was very fortunate in this regard, also:

One of the players kept a through-his-eyes journal. It was funny and just a little bit snarky towards the other heroes.

A couple of other players had written chapter summation entries, but would be hard to follow for those not-in-the-know of the campaign's characters and such.

About the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition:the description on page 30, A 23 Smugglers Entrance is the way to Catacombs of Wrath and B1? I´ve some problems how to map this (and picture it in my head).
Finally on page 35, B6 (the Ancient Prison) has strange hole(?) in one of the cells, with a dotted white half circle. What´s that?

About the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition:the description on page 30, A 23 Smugglers Entrance is the way to Catacombs of Wrath and B1? I´ve some problems how to map this (and picture it in my head).

Finally on page 35, B6 (the Ancient Prison) has strange hole(?) in one of the cells, with a dotted white half circle. What´s that?

I got the impression that the tunnel that cell is connected to is higher up that the prison itself, and therefore that the white half-circle is the tunnel's dead-end wall, while the smaller hole is a hole between the tunnel floor and cell ceiling. Perhaps something broke through?

I don't have the book in front of me, but from what I can recall, the tunnel underneath Sandpoint looks sort of like an inverted lowercase "t", where you initially enter the top of the stem of the "t" from the glassworks and the bottom of the stem of the "t" is the smugglers cove/goblin cave/beach area on the other side of the secret door. The cross portions of the "t" either lead to a dead-end or to the Catacombs of Wrath: when coming from the Glassworks, if you turn right you hit the dead-end, if you turn left, you eventually end up in the CoW. I hope I was able to explain this in my half-awake condition.

Huh. Just reread the section in question. HangarFlying is correct, and my understanding was WAY off. Which, given the size of the Catacombs, means the Smuggler's Cove is much further north than I had understood.

I´ve an elven wizard in the party. He´s on a quest to find an ancient elven kingdom, lost in the mist of history.
I´m pretty sure he´s going to ask a lot of question about the history of Sandpoint and beyond that, Thassilon's.
I wonder what's fair to give him on a Knowledge: History(+8)roll?

Ok. I ve got a silly question for you guys and girls! How much does the +1 cold iron returning dagger of erylium cost?!? Imo it should cost something like 6300 gp but one of my friends said it should be more!:S

Ok. I ve got a silly question for you guys and girls! How much does the +1 cold iron returning dagger of erylium cost?!? Imo it should cost something like 6300 gp but one of my friends said it should be more!:S

You know, after having run the encounter with the greater barghest, I can't help but think this encounter was meant to kill at least one character in the group. The ONLY reason I didn't kill a PC is I chose to have Shalelu enter the room to help in hand-to-hand (she was missing left and right with the bow thanks to the Blink effect - seriously, after failing the first two times, it succeeded every. single. time. after that, with the only failures being to the Spiritual Hammer used by a bard/cleric who used the "See Invisible" scroll) and decided to let the Barghest target the elf as "tastier" and I mostly went with that because I don't believe in letting bad die rolls kill characters. Stupid actions, yes. Bad die rolls, no.

We're talking a critter that was doing a minimum of 27 damage with three attacks a round, and had a +14 to hit. Mal would be hitting most PCs on 2s. Add in blink? The party buffed ahead of time (they had a cleric who could thanks to a Domain ability look through walls, and rolled a nat. 20 for Perception to sense something in there) with bull strength, bless, aid, and more... and if I'd had the Barghest focus its attacks on one character, it wouldn't have been enough.

The barghest is one of those "are you sure you want to release the eldritch horror" things. PCs don't have to go in there, there's plenty of warning something nasty is happening down below, and if they blindly rush in and open rooms they deserve what they get. If they pay attention, and prep before opening the door, it's a very winnable fight.

The barghest is one of those "are you sure you want to release the eldritch horror" things. PCs don't have to go in there, there's plenty of warning something nasty is happening down below, and if they blindly rush in and open rooms they deserve what they get. If they pay attention, and prep before opening the door, it's a very winnable fight.

Which is why they buffed. Hell, they came back the next day with fresh spells... and ironically were so fixated on the huge stack of gold coins that they found those slots to lower the pillar and didn't get attacked by the Shadows first thing!

(I did find a way to warn them about the Shadows, however - they'd left some Goblins alive so I had the goblins clean out the upper chambers of anything left. The goblins didn't find the secret panels however, and one of their number got eaten by the Shadows... leaving a handy goblin corpse in the center of the room. And a fourth Shadow. The leftover Bull Strength buff was eaten by the Shadows (which rolled two 2s for strength damage) and then the Cleric turned those critters into oblivion.)

In short, the group were level 5 going into that room with a Barbarian that stuck with it, and were buffed to the gills... and still would have lost a party member except for my charity. (I figure the Barghest wanted elf for dinner, even as badly hurt as it was - though the Barbarian had been whiffing due to the Blink so he wasn't seen to be that much of a threat.)

Ah well. I've always felt the point of the game is not to kill characters, but to make them genuinely believe they COULD die. This encounter drove that point home. I just suspect (especially with the huge obit thread) that a couple bad die rolls could end up with a TPK.

The pool with the human skulls in B 13: it fills no function and are mostly a cool feature of the room, if I'm reading this correctly.

Has any anyone done something with it, a nice extra feature?

One of my players filled his waterskin with the filthy water from B 12 with his bare hand (got some ideas there), and went straight to the pool and poured some of it in the water. My mind went blank when he asked me if something happens. I felt later that I could had handled it better.

I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but I made a Word file with blank spaces for players to input Sandpoint locations as they encounter them. Just copy and paste into a Word or text document and print out.

Nualia's stat block on page 61 seems off to me, and I can't seem to find any threads about it...

Doing my own calculations, it would seem to me that her likely attacks will be buffed quite a bit beyond how she is actually statted out in the Anniversary Edition. If there are mistakes in my math please point them out to me!

Although her AC incorporates the penalty from Fury of the Abyss, FotA doesn't seem to be factored into her bastard sword attack. So when I factor it in, it becomes:

It then says she casts Divine Favor (+1 luck bonus to attack and damage rolls) at the beginning of combat, so this becomes:
+1 bastard sword +12 (1d10+6/19-20)
claw +6 (1d6+4)

When you combine this with the fact that she can use her Ferocious Strike (+2 damage) on 6 melee attacks, when she does this and combines it with her Power Attack, her bastard sword attack becomes:
+1 bastard sword +10 (1d10+12/19-20)

I don't have my note in front of me, but from what I recall, you are generally correct. I seem to remember that she didn't qualify for Power Attack, though. I can check tomorrow and let you know what I had in my notes.

I don't have my note in front of me, but from what I recall, you are generally correct. I seem to remember that she didn't qualify for Power Attack, though. I can check tomorrow and let you know what I had in my notes.

Thanks. If you can let me know before 3pm Pacific (when they might face her), that would be awesome! ;)

EDIT: And you're right - she doesn't qualify for Power Attack. I might just give her Toughness instead since that's so easy to implement.

...Wow, I thought the pool in the middle was the runewell, myself. I apparently can't read either. Like, the runewell was in a cauldron, surrounded by the skulls, then the waters overflowing into the pool.

You know? It actually does not specify which of the two pools is the Runewell. I assumed it was the one that was bubbling, especially after reading the schematics on the Runewell in the back of the book. But you could easily have the other pool be the Runewell instead. Doesn't really matter.

I assumed the one in the middle was the Runewell, since it'd make more sense in the terms of an evil Goddess' temple, where bodies could be consecrated and baptized in the Runewell, whilst Waters of Lamashtu(if they weren't already elsewhere) could be up top to make the willing(or unwilling) subjects blessed in the deliverance of monstrous spawn.

I assumed the one in the middle was the Runewell, since it'd make more sense in the terms of an evil Goddess' temple, where bodies could be consecrated and baptized in the Runewell, whilst Waters of Lamashtu(if they weren't already elsewhere) could be up top to make the willing(or unwilling) subjects blessed in the deliverance of monstrous spawn.

I agree. I've decided to give the yellow liquid some kind of wrathful effect, especially since the party's alchemist has harvested some. So is the circular pool supposed to be for sacrifices or something? I got confused because I usually associate a "pulpit" with a stand but I guess it can be a platform too. Really don't get the point of two pools in the same room though.

I the description read to the players it is hard to tell which one is the runewell, however in the GMs text for that room it talks about how Elyrium nurtures it and how it "glows and bubbles" which points to the triangular pulpit in the back of the room. Either way it really makes no difference which is the runewell.